Turkey’s Prime Minister’s January 29, 2009 World Economic Forum confrontation with Israel’s President over Gaza offensive seems to have excited many Armenians, giving the latter hope for long-waited Tel Aviv and Washington D.C. recognition of the Armenian genocide. My friend Harut Sassounian, for instance, writes enthusiastically on the Huffington Post that “Israel May Retaliate Against Turkey by Recognizing the Armenian Genocide.” His post appeared even before Prime Minister Erdogan’s angry remarks at Davos, Switzerland. So, perhaps, there is a chance for genocide recognition.

But should Armenians celebrate a short-term conflict between conservative Turkish and Israeli forces – both up for reelection and, thus, appealing to their respective nationalist voters – just because it may result in Armenian genocide recognition?

My answer is no. My answer is no because Erdogan brought up a valid point – Israel’s actions in Gaza were disproportionate and left many civilians dead. My answer is no because the Armenian argument for genocide recognition has been on moral grounds – and should stay so. My answer is no because even if Israel recognizes the Armenian genocide out of anger, realpolitik will dictate Israel and Turkey to come back together – especially after the elections. Even if there is short-term recognition of the Armenian genocide under these circumstances, it won’t be a sustainable one. My answer is no because an unrelated genocide shouldn’t be recognized as a result of dispute over Palestinian and Israeli blood.

If you ask me, the Davos panel had an opportunity for real genocide talk. But that opportunity is not what many Armenians think. The Washington Post journalist who moderated the panel that Erdogan angrily left is of Armenian origin. Instead of not allowing Turkey’s Erdogan to react to Israel’s Shimon Peres, moderator David Ignatius should have asked the Turkish Prime Minister, “You bring up the death of Palestinian civilians, but why is your government so unwilling to recognize oppression against Kurds and admit the systematic destruction of indigenous Armenians during WWI?”

4 Responses to “Davos: An Opportunity Missed”

My take is that some irreparable bad feelings are being created, even if realpolitik keeps their military/political alliance intact. And if either the Jewish lobby stops working against the recognition in the US, or Israel recognizes it, I think there is not turning back on that. It will be the final endgame, leaving Turkey all alone to contemplate its own acceptance and apology. I also think it’s great that Erdogan is speaking out for the oppressed Palestinians. He’d of course have much more credibility if the Kurds and Armenians in Turkey were not treated the way they are, but at least somebody is showing Israel that it cannot expect to be treated with dignity on the world stage when it is behaving like this. The entirety of Gaza is a prison, and Jews should be a LOT more sensitive to what that’s like than they seem to be. Instead of building more colonies, they need to build factories and jobs for Palestinians which will benefit everyone there. They’re also just fighting a losing battle though, since the Palestinians are and will continue to produce way more children…

You are right that the threat of genocide recognition should not be used by Israel as a kind of a weapon against the Turks. This trivialises the issue. Armenians should not be cheering this development.

The greatest criticism of Erdogan is his hypocrisy in receiving in Turkey, Omar al Bashir, the president of Sudan and an indicted war criminal for an ongoing genocide:

You say, “Erdogan has brought up a valid point-Israel’s actions in Gaza were disproportionate and left many civilians dead.”

Since when a war has to be proportionate?! Maybe you should clarify it.

I am afraid that a lot of people forgot the fact that the first rocket throwers were not the Israelis, but the terorizm loving Hamas. And this, mind you, actually happening after the cease-fire of last summer. There was no agitation by the Israelis at the time, period.

The nature of Hamas is that they like to poke a beehive with a stick, not realizing what the consequences will be.

Why a bunch of Palestinians cannot recognize the freedom of a few Israelites? And who was the idiot last year, screaming that the Israelis should be wiped of the map? And the whole world yawned!..

I am not a Jew, but if I had to live in that part of the world, just for the economic freedom and financial liberty, I rather live and work under Israeli people instead of the lazy masses of the Palestinians, smoking their hookkas most of the day.

J.A., When you say “there was no agitation by Israel”, you seem to be forgetting a rather crucial fact: Gaza has been blockaded since 2006 by Israel, after Hamas won the elections there in a surprise outcome. All 400,000 people blockaded by land and sea and being terribly punished because some of them voted for Hamas. If Hamas is a terrorist organization, then so is Israel, which continues to colonize the West Bank (a terrorist act in itself), punishes tens of thousands of people for the actions of others, and only withdrew from Gaza because the cost of remaining became so high, due to Hamas.

The ironic thing, is that like in the case of Turkey, which I think would be better off admitting to the genocide, Israel would be much better off doing the right thing. What does that mean? Open up the borders, invest, create jobs, goodwill, hope, bonds of friendship. When people have a lot of hope for a better life, when they are not being trampled like ants, they are much less likely to become suicide bombers. They are more likely to work, to save, to have less children (a demographic time bomb for Israel, as Gaza is 75% below the age of 25).

But of course, Israel is not stupid, they know all this. This means that they want the conflict to continue. They want people to be in a state of war. Why? So that they can continue their settlement of some more land in the west bank and continue to try to cry that they are the victims. They’re not, and they certainly haven’t been since 1967. Peace would be easy there today, with a two state plan that had been discussed forever. The only obstacle is Israel, which does not want it.